A partial list of Highland Medical Center’s costs is provided below.
a. Depreciation of X-ray equipment.
b. Cost of drugs used for patients.
c. Nurses’ salaries.
d. Cost of new heart wing.
e. Overtime incurred in the Records Department due to a computer failure.
f. Cost of patient meals.
g. General maintenance of the hospital.
h. Salary of the nutritionist.
i. Cost of maintaining the staff and visitors’ cafeteria.
j. Training costs for nurses.
k. Operating room supplies used on patients (catheters, sutures, etc.).
l. Utility costs of the hospital.
m. Cost of intravenous solutions.
n. Cost of blood tests.
o. Cost of improvements on the employee parking lot.
p. Cost of laundry services for operating room personnel.
q. Depreciation on patient rooms.
r. Cost of advertising hospital services on television.
s. Cost of X-ray test.
t. Salary of intensive care personnel.
u. Doctor’s fee.

Instructions
1. What would be Highland’s most logical definition for the final cost object?
2. Identify how each of the costs is to be classified as either direct or indirect. Define direct costs in terms of a patient as a cost object.